No, I will not. Though I'd love to have it, I'm in the income bracket that can't justify spending close to $200 for one HO engine, even if it is a nice looking MBTA one. (Maybe if I made another 20K a year, I would!)

A non-foaming rail enthusiast.

Member of a yet-to-be-determined transit social groupDo what you do, do it often, do it well....

I've been looking at online photos of GP40MCs. I have read that two of the units (1116 & 1119, I think) recieved "switcher mods". The only specific mod described is rear ditch lights. It appears from the photos that they may also have replaced the original GMDD-style four near vertical steps from the ground to the front and rear porches with more "US-style" steps. Can anyone confirm this?

From Rapido and their distributors, they'll be available in two styles: Delivery scheme with skirts, and McGinnis scheme without skirts. Also available, without skirts, will be Penn Central, MBTA and Unlettered.

However, also available will be the McGinnis scheme with skirts. These are available only through the NHRHTA. All three, through the NHRHTA, will be twenty dollars less than MSRP.

I would like to make a model of a Morrison-Knudsen RDC conversion, but am finding it difficult to get much information on what the conversion actually entailed.What I have found:The numbers and types of the RDCs converted and the numbers they became after conversionLots of photosI have a couple of questions to start with:Did the rebuilds use the original trucks, with the transmission removed or new trucks? If new, what trucks were they?What was the interior layout like?There seem to be a good few books on RDCs in general, are there any that cover the rebuilds?

The best RDC book is the one written by Chuck Crouse, but it has little info on the MBTA rebuilds. Just to add to Dutch's info, the trucks were resprung to compensate for the reduced car weight, but were said to ride rough and were not popular with commuters.

The prototype "Boise" Budds are still around,after use by Caltrain(JPBX),they wound up at GCRY in Williams Az.Sometimes used as the 2nd train to the Grand Canyon in the summer months,pulled by a former Amtrak F-40ph!